Revelation 13:3 - "And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed..."

Precise and wonderful revelation of Jesus Christ sent through his angel to his servant John, to establish the faith of the children of God in the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. (Rev. 1:1-3) This prophecy was given to John almost 2000 years before its fulfillment in our days. The confirmation comes from the pages of history. In brief some details of history will refresh the mind to reproduce the fullness of the picture.

The Kingdom of the Papacy is presented by Daniel as 'the little horn' (Daniel 7:8) and by John as 'the leopard power' coming out of the sea. (Rev. 13:1, 2) It all started after the decline of Pagan Rome, where in 313 AD Constantine the Great and Licinius with the Edict of Milan gave legal status to the Christian Church.

With Constantine and the men of power, the Romans entered the Christian Church in great numbers with their traditions and religious practices. The adulteration of the Christian principles in a short time dragged the church into the predicted apostasy. ( 2 Thess. 2:3) The change was felt most severely on the Ten Commandments of the Law of God. Christ had said: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (Matthew 5:17, 18)

The Church met in different councils to approve the religious rules for the believers, and at last the version of the Law in the Catechism came out without the Second Commandment which forbade the worship of images; the Fourth Commandment: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy" was moved to the Third with the intention to replace the seventh-day sabbath with the first day of the week, Sunday; and the last commandment divided in two to complete the list of ten commandments. What God had spoken with his mouth, and written with his finger, the conciliarists changed by their own authority. (Dan. 7:25)

Constantine removed the seat of the government from Rome to Constantinople in 330 AD and Romulus Augustulus was deposed in 476 by the invading armies. The Arians kings that took the civil government in Rome were closely checking the activities of the Bishop of Rome until Emperor Justinian (527-565) ordered General Belisarius to enter Rome and drive out the Arians. In 538 AD the reign of the civil government was given to Pope Vigilius and then the Kingdom of the Papacy began to count years of a politico-religious power as foretold by the prophecy. "And power was given unto him to continue forty and two months." (Rev. 13:5) (42 x 30= 1260 prophetic days= 1260 years. In prophecy one day=one year, Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6)

What to expect of a human being with the education of the Middle Ages and absolute power in his hands? History comes out with a long story... Most men took the throne of the papacy to satisfy their ambition of personal power. On certain occasion the result was the antagonistic reign of two popes at the same time, and the scandalized Europeans watching them claiming their own legitimacy and each one offending and vilifying the other with names and titles, no doubt even as the antichrist of 1 John 2:18. On 1378 for another 40 years "The church had two popes, two papal capitals, two colleges and two curial systems, both fully staffed and furiously competing with each other." A History of the Popes. Nicolas Cheetham, p. 164. The Great Schism ended with three popes at the same time. The Council of Constance (1414-1418) took care of them, electing a new one: Pope Martin V.

Seeing the deplorable condition, corruption and abuse of power that these men brought inside the church, John Wycliff in England and Martin Luther in Germany tried to raise the voice to reform their church, and when concurring with the opinion that the papacy was the expected antichrist, in retaliation the papal bulls were sent to their place for the arrest and imprisonment of the heretics. These two reformers escaped with their lives, but Jan Huss in Bohemia (1369-1415) was taken to test the flames assigned to any voice exposing the sins of Papal Rome.

Prophecy had assigned to this power 1260 years. What happened in 1798? Sent by Napoleon, on February 10, 1798, General Berthier entered the Vatican, took Pope Pius VI prisoner and put an end to the political power of the Papacy. "And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death." (Rev. 13:3)

For many people that was the end of the Papacy, but not for the students of the Bible. Prophecy was declaring: "and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast." (Rev.13:3)

Somehow the healing began to take place. On February 11, 1929, a treaty was signed between Gasparri and Mussolini recognizing the dominion of the Holy See over the Vatican Estate and allowing the Pope to re-enter the ranks of independent sovereign rulers. The Pope could function again as a king among the rulers of the earth, and as a head of a state. From that moment, the exchange of embassies with the nations of the world began to grow.

Pope John Paul II (1978-2005) distinguished himself for extensive traveling and asserting his leadership with his presence in many quarters of the globe.

Following him is Benedict XVI (2005-2013)
extending also the business of the Papacy to different places
abroad. He resigned on February 28, 2013 for the good of the
church.

On March 13, 2013 the conclave of Cardenals elected
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, the first Jesuit, latino-americano
from Argentina as the 266th pope named Francis I.

But the wound inflicted to the Papacy in 1798 has not been healed completely. That wound took the sword of punishment out of the hand of the Papacy: such as he used for a thousand years and during the historical Inquisition before the Reformation.

As the Papacy was coming out of the stage in 1798, another nation was raising up to become the world power who will complete the healing of the leopard beast: "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon." (Rev. 13:11)

In clear language and plain words the prophecy describes how this new nation will do to use her power to heal the wound of the papacy: "And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed." (Rev. 13: 12)

For more than 200 years the blessings of Almighty God came down upon the citizens of this nation with peace and prosperity as the nation followed the path of the framers of the Constitution and maintained the saving standard of freedom with the separation of church and state. But when dominant religious powers enter the chambers of government to impose religious doctrines as the law of the land, then the Constitution is violated, the prophecy of the image is fulfilled, and the consequences of allowing 'the good religious leaders' to dominate the civil government are irreparably disastrous. "And he had power to give life into the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed." (Rev. 13: 15) The papacy was a religio-politico power demanding everyone's worship; the image is a similar religious power, a union of church and state, demanding a false system of worship.

For the moral problems of the world, the solution
is in the word of Jesus: "Ye must be born again." (John
3: 3, 7) Let the world hear the preachers of the Word of God,
proclaiming the everlasting gospel, (Rev. 14:6, 7) and let
the Holy Spirit open the mind and the heart of each soul with
repentance, and conviction in the saving grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ. "That whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3: 15)

And to conclude the story, also the Europeans
nations turn their support to uphold the supremacy of the Papacy: "And
the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received
no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with
the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power
and strength unto the beast." (Rev. 17: 12, 13) The European
Union of nations trying to solve their deep crisis submit themselves
under the power of the Papacy.

And the same ten kings make their minds again, rescind their former decision, turn against that power "and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire." (Rev.17:16) According to these prophecies that is the end of the Kingdom of the Papacy, or the antichrist, because at this time, looking to the eastern sky, Christ is coming with all his glory, majesty and power to rescue God's children.

A word for the last days...
By the decree enforcing the institution of the papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation [the United States] will disconnect herself fully from righteousness... Maranatha, p. 199.

A word for the last days...
As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself will personate Christ. The church has long professed to look to the Saviour's advent as the consummation of her hopes. Now the great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come. Maranatha, p. 276.